


you've left a macchiato on me

by klancerista



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Also I love coffee so if you're ready to learn I got u, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Female pronouns for Pidge, Friends to Lovers, Gay Keith (Voltron), I decided I'd make klance suffer with me lmao, I gave my baby Lance anxiety bc we are one, I hate Starbucks yall, Japanese Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mutual Pining, Please Kill Me, Rating MAY go up later we'll have to see, SORRY YALL, Starbucks AU, coffee shop AU, exaggerated Lance's height for the sake of my height difference kink lmao, i died writing this, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-16 10:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8097913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klancerista/pseuds/klancerista
Summary: “…What?” was all Keith could manage.“Oh. Hey. So you are conscious! I thought you were dead or something!” The guy laughs real hard, as if it weren’t still dark outside, as if the stars weren’t still out, as if it weren’t 5:00 am, and as if he and Keith had been friends for a long, long time. Keith noticed that his eyes were really blue and his teeth were really white and super shiny. Maybe it was his dreamlike, half alive state, but Keith thought his laugh sounded like waves crashing and cymbals colliding in an exploding crescendo of life. Aaaaand then he realized that he was just staring open mouthed at the guy and he had stopped laughing like, over a minute ago. In which Keith and Lance are college students by day and baristas by night. They also fall in love by accident.





	1. undertow

**Author's Note:**

> hello I am klancerista! Your friendly neighborhood barista who loves klance and thought this story would be cool?? I hope you enjoy my vice. If you're confused about any coffee 'terminology' I'm gonna leave it at the end! You can also visit me on tumblr @: klancerista
> 
> PS I didn't have anyone else proofread this so I'm sorry if I made any mistakes!  
> PPS macchiato means mark in Italian I got u fam  
> one last thing, I made this before birthdays were announced, please excuse my inaccurately assigned signs for them sigh

Keith’s day was not going so well.

First and foremost, Keith was a barista at Starbucks and he was at work. In fact, he was at work two hours early because some stupid chick called out fifteen minutes before her shift started. They didn’t have anyone else so Keith decided to work a ten hour shift in order to keep the store from burning down. That in and of itself made it nearly impossible for Keith to twitch his mouth into a smile as he pulled into the parking lot and waved at his coworkers. That’s right, he wasn’t just coming in two hours early—he was coming in two hours early to _open_.

It was literally 4:45 am. They had just unlocked the door. They had a couple minutes before people started coming in at that ungodly hour. Pidge, the shift supervisor and definitely Keith’s best (only?) friend, was in the back speaking to Allura, the general store manager. Allura was probably the youngest store manager in the entire district. Which was probably why everyone liked her so much. Keith was by himself on the floor for that brief period; he was trying to relax before peak hit and he’d be busting his ass for two hours straight. He let his eyelids slide closed.

“Hey there, is your manager in? Is there any way I could talk to them? My name’s Lance, I filled out the online application and I’m just trying to see if you guys got it. Hello? Are you awake?” Keith’s eyes opened slowly, his peace disturbed, his tranquility shattered, his stability completely utterly _ruined_.

“…What?” was all Keith could manage.

“Oh. Hey. So you are conscious! I thought you were dead or something!” The guy laughs real hard, as if it weren’t still dark outside, as if the stars weren’t still out, as if it _weren’t_ 5:00 am, and as if he and Keith had been friends for a long, long time. Keith noticed that his eyes were really blue and his teeth were really white and super shiny. Maybe it was his dreamlike, half alive state, but Keith thought his laugh sounded like waves crashing and cymbals colliding in an exploding crescendo of life.

Aaaaand then he realized that he was just staring open mouthed at the guy and he had stopped laughing like, over a minute ago. They had super awkward eye contact for a bit longer before Keith registered what he had previously asked about.

“Uhm. I’ll… Go get my… Manager? I’ll go. I’ll get her.” Keith fumbled over himself as he bolted into the back, suddenly more awake than he had been since he woke up. Allura and Pidge shot him a look of concern at the same exact second.

“Keith?” Allura raised a perfectly lavender eyebrow at him.

“Someone wants to talk to you out there. He applied.”

Allura, eyes still on Keith, clearly concerned, walked through the door leading to the front of house. When Keith faced Pidge, all she was doing was grinning like a wild man.

“Was he cute?”

“NO!”

“Are you sure? You’re pretty flustered and also a little, what is that I sense, annoyed? Isn’t that what you always do when you think a boy is attractive? Give him attitude?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, _Pidgey_.”

“Let’s just get back onto the floor.” Pidge chuckled as she shrugged and followed.

Upon returning to the floor, Pidge jumped onto register, and Keith hurriedly began preparing his bar for flat out warfare. Every now and then he’d glance back up and look at the tall, tan guy as he sat and spoke with Allura. Surprisingly, he was making her laugh, which she didn’t do in front of everyone. She basically only laughed when she got drunk at the holiday parties each year.

Keith’s wide indigo eyes followed as their chitchat ended. It was 5:30 now. Allura stood, shook his hands firmly, and offered him a drink on the house. Naturally, he accepted and now Keith was left to make a drink for him. Pidge, of course, made a giant show of asking for the guy’s name when he approached the register, she gave Keith the sexy eyebrow shift. Keith snorted.

“An iced grande quad ristretto Americano with three pumps caramel, breve, and extra ice?” Keith was surprised. That guy really looked like he had a serious sweet tooth. He turned the cup over and saw “LANCE” written in giant obnoxious capital letters. Lance.

 _“What kind of name is that?”_ Keith thought as he began pulling the shots.

After crafting the drink, Keith went to set it on the hand off bar while calling out for Lance. However, the other was already standing there; Keith hadn’t even set the drink down yet before he realized that Lance was touching his hand, carefully taking the drink from his grip with a friendly grin upon his face. Keith saw sparks in his eyes and words on his lips, entranced.

“Thanks man! What was your name?” Lance eyeballed Keith’s apron with his name embroidered on it. “Keith? Awesome, hopefully we’ll end up being coworkers! Then it’ll be you and me, Lance and Keith, the dream team!” he smirked and waggled his eyebrows much the same way that Pidge had done hers not too long ago. With a final open mouth, all perfect teeth laugh, Lance waved goodbye and left the store. It was 5:45. As Keith watched him leave it was like he dropped the sunlight in his wake. The room seemingly got brighter, the rising sun beamed golden pillars through the open windows, and the sky was the most magical shade of ocean blue from where he was standing.

And suddenly, Keith’s day got a little bit better.

 

-

“What did you think of that boy Lance, Pidge?” Allura consulted Pidge, basically her right hand man, in the back after he had left.

“He was pretty alright I guess. He had a good personality for five in the morning, that’s for sure. He loved talking too.” Both ladies laughed lightly at that.

“I mean, he had the right attitude, you know? He was positive, upbeat, knew our mission statements by heart, and has had a few other quick service food jobs in the past. He said he’d work anytime we needed as well.” Allura skimmed his resume and entered his name into the background check.

Another girl, Nyma, walked into the back to put on her apron and clock in. She waved giddily at Allura and Pidge. Pidge told Nyma to tell Keith to take a ten when she got on.

When Keith stepped into the back, Pidge walked out and winked at her friend. Allura turned to Keith and asked him the same question she had asked Pidge.

“How did you like Lance?” She tilted her head, smiling, long ponytail swaying gracefully across her shoulders.

“He was”, Keith thought back to the Americano he had just made “…sweet. He was like suspiciously happy, but I still believe that that’s the real him.” Keith could still hear the sounds of cymbals and splashing waves and could almost smell the ocean. Allura’s voice pulled him back.

“I have to say I agree. Even Pidge liked him; she never likes anybody. I’m probably going to hire him.”

“It’s about time we paid someone to be Keith’s boyfriend.” Pidge’s voice sounded again, she grabbed two gallons of milk from the back fridge and went back onto the floor without another word. Allura laughed out loud and Keith sputtered where he stood, blushing furiously.

 

-

Walking out of the Starbucks had Lance feeling more confident than he ever had in his entire life. Things were looking like they were going to be shaping up really soon. He wanted that job so so so _so_ badly. Then, as if it were Divine Intervention finally rewarding him for all of his virtue, there was not only a cute girl that worked there, but an even cuter guy! Not to mention that the guy was like, some sort of bar ninja or something. The drink Keith had made for Lance was absolutely irrefutably _perfect_.

That mullet haircut, which should have been totally ugly and unattractive, was actually amazing on Keith. It was shiny, plush looking, elegantly disheveled. Super cool. Plus. It was up in a tiny adorable ponytail to keep it out of the food and drinks. Wow. And on top of _all_ that—those eyes were the most wonderful shade of indigo that Lance had ever seen. They reminded him of the ocean at night, when the waves were wildest under the rule of the moon.

Lance was daydreaming all the way back to his car about working with Keith when he heard the X-files theme playing from his back pocket. His phone. He grabbed it up right quick and answered without even looking at the caller ID.

“H-Hello?” his voice squeaked a bit at the height of the last syllable. His hands were itching and feet tapping with excitement. “Yes this is Lance. Is this Allura?”

“Yes, good morning Lance, I realize it’s still quite early but your experience and personality really left an impression on me and my team.” Her voice sounded even more ethereal from over the phone. “I’d like to hire you immediately, but since I already scheduled a hiring fair for tomorrow, I need to go through with the formality. Please arrive here tomorrow morning at 8:00 am wearing business casual attire and bring another copy of your resume and preferred availability. Thank you very much for coming in this morning!”

“T-Thank you, ma’am. I really, really appreciate this opportunity. I-uh, I… Thanks again! I will see you tomorrow.” Lance hung up the phone. He nearly threw it at his windshield and started dancing. He did it! This meant he had to go over to Hunk and Shiro’s to celebrate.

He pulled into the other boys’ driveway and went up to the front door before remembering that it was barely 6:00 am. Hunk probably wasn’t even awake yet and Shiro was probably awake and working out or something… But Lance had news and he had to share it soon, so he whipped out his phone once again and dialed his friend’s number.

Hunk, who is in every way good natured and a fiercely true friend, answered within two rings.

“Lance? Are you ok? It’s really early. Do you need help? Do you want me to pick you up from somewhere? What’s up?” Hunk went from dead asleep to Mom Friend in under two seconds.

“Hunk—you’re the best. Have I ever told you that? I’m ok though, except I’ve got a job now! Let me in and I’ll tell you the rest! I’m outside your door right now.”

“Oh wow, ok wow I’m coming. I’m really excited now. Like, too excited to be mad at you for waking me up at… 6am. Wow.”

They hung up and Lance waited, tapping his feet in uncontrollably happy, energetic anxiousness. Hunk opened the door not too long after and Lance rushed to join him inside. Hunk changed clothes and brushed his teeth as they awaited Shiro’s return from his morning run. Shiro and Hunk were roommates and also Lance’s best friends in the entire known universe. They had been since they could all remember. Hunk was a waiter at a little diner in the downtown Altea area. He was also attending university for environmental engineering. Shiro was a physical therapist in training. He specialized in helping amputees.

Shiro returned from his morning jog not too long after seeing Lance walk inside.

“Lance, what are you here so early for? You’re not in trouble are you?” Shiro asked with concern in his eyes, eyebrows furrowed.

“Why is it that you both always assume I’m in trouble?” Lance mock-whined, puffing out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout.

The three boys laughed as Lance threw himself into a lounging position on the nearby sofa. Shiro seated himself at the chair beside the couch and Hunk went into the kitchen to brew coffee and start making food, which sounded pretty good at that moment.

That was when Lance began to discuss all that had taken place that morning in grueling detail. Except, he chose to omit one thing that he was too embarrassed to bring up— the cute guy Keith. He really wanted to mention him, but found himself way too flustered to even confirm his existence. Lance decided he’d get to know Keith before he rushed into a reckless crush with him.

 _“New job, new me.”_ He thought to himself.

The morning of Lance’s interview slash new hire paperwork session was exciting to say the least. He wore exactly what Allura had asked him to wear, business casual. Except, Lance _had_ to do it with a twist because that was just who he was. He wore a light blue button up shirt with powdery pink dress pants. Accented of course with a dark blue pineapple tie. There were so many people inside the somewhat small Starbucks, all of them hopeful to land a job. Lance looked around until he saw Allura sitting at a table with what he could only assume were other managers. Each person had a clip board and big grins upon their faces. He could feel nerves creeping up his neck and back as he peered over each person’s face.

“You might want to sign in and wait until someone calls you up.” a voice from beside him spoke up. It was the same tiny girl from yesterday, but what was her name again? Lance checked for a nametag, _Pidge?_

“Oh! Sure, thanks, Pidge! Did I say that right?”

“Yep. You did. You already got the job right? Everybody was talking about you.” Pidge decided it was best to leave out the part where they were mostly teasing Keith because he had a crush on the new guy. They even had a cute ship name picked out—Klance.

“For real?! That’s crazy. It’s all good stuff right?” Lance was completely level-headed and confident until Pidge mentioned that. Lance’s self-esteem was only as high as the opinions of others. Maybe it was a personal flaw, but hey. He was a social entity, he needed outsider approval and validation to function. Both ironically and literally. Suddenly, his excited foot tap turned into a nervous and anxiety ridden foot tap.

“Oh yeah, all good! Don’t even worry about anything, Mr. Tall Dark and Skinny!” Pidge laughed awkwardly as she realized that she may have said too much due to the way Lance’s shoulders slumped visibly, and his eyes flickered with worry. Great, she had shot his confidence. “Can I get you a water while you wait? Do you wanna look at our coffee tasting manual?” Pidge raised her eyebrows with concern.

“Uhm, no. No thank you. I’ll be o-okay.” Pidge patted his back in a comforting way and returned to work. Lance grabbed an open two person table and sat nervously after scribbling his name in. It was near the back of house, on the opposite side of the room from where Allura and the managers were seated. She hadn’t seen him come in yet.

Lance knew he was having an anxiety attack. His head was swimming, his entire body felt drenched with sweat, and it seemed like everyone in the room was leering at him, waiting for him to screw up. He rested his head in his arms on the table and began trying to breathe. He pictured the beach, his true happy place. He pictured that he and Hunk and Shiro were laying out on the sand, sun beaming. He pictured a slightly smaller, lean, pale boy coming up to him with a wide smile, indigo eyes afire with mischief. Keith, from yesterday morning. Oh no, not now. He lifted his head from his visualization as he noticed the front door to the store open.

 _“Think of the devil.”_ Lance thought to himself as Keith walked into the store. His mullet was up in a small, fluffy bun on top of his head. He was wearing a form-fitting, black short sleeve turtleneck bodysuit with the tightest, high-waisted black jeans imaginable. He also had a pair of Lennon sunglasses on, completing his bewitching look.

Lance’s eyes shot open at that. Blush now profuse on his cheeks. Seriously!

Keith removed the glasses once inside the store and strode quickly and confidently to the employees only room, walking past Lance with a questioning gaze. Lance groaned and smacked his head against the table.

 _“I was just starting to calm down and now this! Great! He probably thinks I’m crazy!”_ Lance was a second away from banging his head against the table when he heard the stool across from him shift and a voice from above.

“Hey.”

Lance raised his head cautiously and found himself looking right into Keith’s beautiful glimmering eyes. There were swirls of anger in them, outlined in concern and something that Lance couldn’t quite place. He then moved on to what Keith had in front of him. There was a small cup of green tea, a plastic spoon, a cup with honey at the bottom, and a few squares of minty chocolate. Lance glanced from the items to Keith questioning what he was trying to ask of him.

“These will help you calm down. Start wherever you want and just go for it.” Keith said, however, he grabbed the green tea and took a slow, small sip before placing it back on the table. It was as if Keith was trying to tell him to start with the tea. Lance’s heart began soaring. He grabbed the tea himself, sipping exactly where Keith had, savoring the indirect kiss even though the tea wasn’t sweet at all.

Keith parted his lips in a tiny smile, dipping his pinky finger into the honey and innocently cleaning it off with his mouth. Lance grabbed the spoon and parroted, eyes on Keith the entire time. His face was still painfully flushed, but his heart wasn’t skipping so much and he found himself smiling back as Keith then grabbed a square of chocolate and placed it on his own tongue. Lance followed suit, nerves gone, body calm, smile wider than a river. Lance swore that magic warmth was radiating from the other’s smile. The two didn’t speak; they only looked at each other.

Keith then stood up, eyes still on Lance, and walked away into the back. Before Lance could even figure out what to say, Allura sat before him.

“It’s wonderful to see you, Lance! I’m glad you could make it today.” Allura offered a kind and warm smile. Although Lance could see she was puzzled as to what Keith was up to.

“Thank you for calling me to come back.” Lance watched Allura move the remaining items out of the way, replacing them with plain white paperwork.

“Are you and Keith friends? I saw you two chit chatting over here.” A small crease formed between her eyebrows as she worked her brain.

“Nah, we aren’t friends or anything. He was just talking to me while I waited.” Keith reappeared on the floor only a few moments later, apron on and not looking Lance’s direction anymore.

“Oh… well fortunately you’ll be able to get to know him quite soon. Once we get this paperwork and the computer training done, you’ll be able to train with him on the floor!”

“REALLY?”

“He’s our certified Barista Trainer as well as Coffee Master, he has extensive knowledge of latte art, health safety, beverage crafting, and being a team leader.” Allura seemed to puff out her proud momma bird feathers at being able to brag about Keith that way. Lance groaned and in the way he saw Keith smirk from the bar, knew that this would be the wildest job he had in his entire life.

However, his heart eagerly throbbed for more.

 

-

The first week of Lance’s training consisted of him sitting in the lobby of the store with Pidge going over the computer manual that talked about necessary (but incredibly boring) shit. Of _course_ Lance understood that washing his hands was crucial, of course he knew never to make sexual comments to his coworkers, and of course he knew that stealing would get him fired and prosecuted. He constantly found his gaze wandering away from the computer screen. Most of the time, they wandered over to Keith, who was slowly becoming a weird constant in Lance’s life and dreams.

Keith, at that particular moment, was making whipped creams. He carefully pumped vanilla syrup into the steam pitchers and then slowly filled them with whipping cream. As he transported the mixture to the actual whipped cream canister and screwed the nitrogen capsule onto the cap, Lance was mesmerized. Then, as if Lance was cursed by a higher power, Keith began shaking the canister by his head and face. Back and forth, up and down. Lance felt as if he were swallowing cotton. At that exact moment, there was a sharp pinch on his side right above his ribs, Pidge. He yelped and whipped his head around before Keith could look him dead in the eyes in confusion. Instead, he faced Pidge, whose eyebrows were furrowed, lips puffed in annoyance, and arms crossed under her chest.

“Could you, maybe, one: not be gross and two: pay attention to this?” Pidge’s honey colored eyes flicked from the long abandoned laptop to Lance’s bewildered face. Was she seriously calling him out?

“I don’t know what you mean by gross, but sure, I’ll focus.” Playing dumb had always worked for Lance before. Pidge went back a little bit in the video guide they were watching, unimpressed by Lance’s feigned ignorance.

“Remarking on, talking about, or mimicking sexual gestures to fellow partners and customers is never acceptable. Please watch this example and see if you can identify what the partner in question has done wrong.” The lady in the video was speaking with an almost robotic, monotonous voice as Lance realized why Pidge had taken him back to this section. Pidge paused the video and shot him one last look. Lance’s face was bright, bright crimson, another new constant in his life was blushing profusely.

“That’s what I mean by gross. Got it? I wasn’t born yesterday. I know what you’re looking at and why. And I don’t really like what I’m seeing.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry. Won’t happen again, I swear on my grandmother’s heaven sent paella recipe.” Lance assured, crossing his heart for good measure.

“Good.” And with that, Lance’s painfully boring afternoon resumed.

 

-

Keith dreaded the day he had to work with Lance and train him on bar. This was not because he disliked Lance, no. Keith was just nervous around new people. Sure he had helped Lance calm down that one time and it felt like they had a nice moment; however, most often, people believe that he comes across as intimidating and perpetually angry once they “get to know him”. This was all because he had a serious case of “resting bitch face”, which he thought was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. It mostly sounded like something fuckboys made up to say to people when they don’t get their way.

Needless to say, when Keith walked into the back room and saw Lance’s name on the schedule to come in shortly after he started, he turned to Allura in a last ditch effort.

“Why can’t Shay help Lance train? She’s a lot nicer.”

“You are nice too, Keith. You just don’t know it yet. Plus, Shay is still trying to put together her Coffee Master presentation.”

“She’s still nicer than me.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be clocking in?”

Keith said no more as he ran onto the floor to avoid Allura’s wrath.

Pidge was off that Sunday afternoon, but Shay was waiting for Keith at the register, a large smile on her face.

“Hello Keith! It’s great to see you and even better getting to work with you! We never get to work together, so this should be fun.” She still smiled, and Keith felt the corners of his mouth turn up a little in response.

“Yeah, it’ll be great, Shay.”

Out of the corner of Keith’s eye, he saw the storefront door open and in waltzed Lance. Lance saw Keith and Shay and waved enthusiastically as he headed toward the back room. Keith sighed and grabbed the barista training materials that he would be using shortly. Shay noticed this and her face transformed from a sweet smile to an inquisitive one.

“You don’t like the new guy, Lance?” She asked, almost too interested in what she saw.

“It’s not that, don’t go telling him that. I’m just…not excited to be at work today. I’m tired from school.” Keith didn’t want to explain himself, but felt as if he had to. He didn’t know Shay too well, just that she was well liked among customers and partners alike. He wasn’t sure how much he could trust her with gossip.

“Hello Lance!” Shay greeted, smile as big as ever.

“Hey Shay!” Lance greeted back. He had worked a few shifts on register the entire time, and gotten to know most of the partners in that time.

Keith was pulled from his thoughts as Lance walked out into the bar and register area, face looking absolutely jubilant as he greeted the two. At the same time, however, Keith could easily see how wound up his nerves were at the sheer _newness_ of everything. The two boys eyed each other awkwardly, sizing each other up and checking each out at that the same time. As their eyes met, they both smirked. Lance’s nerves melted away as they began to speak.

“Like what you—” they both began but stopped halfway, surprised to catch each other using the same line. They looked at each other with wide surprised eyes until Lance start cackling with laughter. Shay joined him soon after, she shook her head and grabbed a broom. Keith was left dumbfounded until they were done.

“You two play nice, I’m going to sweep the lobby.”

Keith felt a light flush kiss his cheeks as he whipped his gaze away from Lance. He muttered about getting started on the bar training as Lance walked over to the espresso machine where he was standing. Keith grabbed three cups: a tall iced cup, a venti iced cup, and a grande hot cup. He then began writing on the cups, creating hypothetical drink orders upon them. He could feel Lance’s eyes concentrated upon him and his confidence suddenly skyrocketed.

“Okay,” he turned to face Lance and they almost bumped heads, not making his blushing any less noticeable, when did he move so close anyway? “So these are our most commonly sold handcrafted beverages, I’m going to have you practice them one at a time. After you get the hang of that, we’ll start you on sequencing so you aren’t just making one drink at a time. Do you understand these drink codes? I know Allura worked on register and writing cups with you for a while. Do these all make sense to you?”

“Yeah, I think so. This one is a tall caramel Frappuccino,” Lance’s fingers touched Keith’s as he took the cup from his hand, Keith blushed again, hoping Lance wouldn’t look up from his concentrated gaze, “this one is a grande hot chai tea latte, and this one is a venti iced caramel macchiato.” He turned his strikingly sharp and perfectly shaped face toward Keith, who was now having A Moment™. Keith, voice remaining surprisingly calm, nodded his head, confirming the other’s answers.

“Great. You can read cups, that’s half the battle right there. Do you know the syrup proportions or measurements?”

“I don’t think so.”

Keith pointed to a handy chart that was laminated and taped to the espresso machine. It gave the basic recipes for both hot and iced espresso beverages.

“So,” he said, still trying not to fixate on how close Lance was standing to him, “this will tell you everything you need to know if you have a hard time or a weird memory collapse. For hot drinks, the proportion for espresso shots is one, two, two. That means that talls get one shot, grandes and ventis get two. There are exceptions, but we’ll get there when we get there. For iced, the proportion for espresso is one, two, three. That means tall still gets one shot, grandes still get two, but now ventis get three shots. Syrups work similarly, hot drinks go three, four, five. Iced goes three, four, six. The only difference between hot and cold, basically, is that iced ventis get one extra pump of syrup and one extra shot than hot ones. If you can remember this, you’re golden.”

“That’s… a lot.”

“It seems like it but you’ll get it in no time, I promise.” Keith offered a tiny smile for reassurance, and he noticed Lance’s face redden slightly at that.

“Also, the default milk, unless something is written in the box, is two percent. For Frappuccinos its whole milk. Why don’t you try making the caramel macchiato? Caramel macchiatos are also an exception, they get one less pump of syrup in them. Knowing this new information, what are the pump proportions for caramel macchiatos?”

“Uhh…it’d be…two, three, four for hot?” Keith nodded, eyes approving, “And iced would get two, three, five?”

“Yes! Great! Get to it!” Keith could feel himself getting too excited, unbeknownst to him this made Lance’s heart start breakdancing pretty much. Lance smiled again, and began crafting the beverage.

“You know caramel macchiatos go syrup, milk, ice, then shots, right?”

“Yup! I got it!” Lance pumped the syrup and pulled the shots, he added the milk and ice before the shots had pulled, the drink came together in moments, seemingly on its own.

“Wow… you’re pretty quick, for a new guy.” Keith smirked as Lance pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow at him. The challenge was on.

By the end of Lance’s shift that day, he and Keith ended up giving away about fifteen drinks that were for practice. Keith even let Lance make a few customer drinks. It only took Lance ten minutes of bickering to get permission to do so. When Lance was off, about an hour before close, Keith saw a calm and demure smile grow over the other’s face. Lance’s teeth were as sparklingly white as ever, framed perfectly by his thin lips and contrasting his deep tan colored skin. He waved and went to the back, thanking Keith and Shay for all the training. Keith couldn’t believe himself.

He had a crush on the new guy.


	2. tuxedo mocha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things are starting to pick up!
> 
> find me on tumblr! @ klancerista c:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello friends thank you so much for reading! I really really love hearing from you! I hope you enjoy this chapter

“This is unbelievable, Pidge! _Unbelievable_.” Keith paced his living room, Pidge sitting on his floor. They were about to tune into the latest episode of: “Pidge picks a weird alien and/or horror film and Keith watches it and is amazed at both Pidge’s range of tolerance for gore and expansive cinema knowledge for a non-film major”.

She looked up to Keith, the opening credits of _Suspiria_ playing, and patted the pillow on the floor.

“Shut up and sit down, Keith. You only like his face. You’ll get over it. Libras always get over it.” and she turned to view the film. Keith gawked and continued pacing.

“Geminis always think they’re right.”

“Libras never make a decision!”

“Geminis always have to have the last word!”

“Libras always fall in love with their eyes first!”

“I don’t want to argue, Pidge!”

“Libras never do!”

“UGH.”

By now, Pidge had stopped the film, paused on a girl’s wide eyed stare. She turned around once more to face Keith, who was going up and down his hallway pacing his thoughts away. He also worried his lips with his teeth and glared at the floor.

“Keith, tell me what you think it is that you like about Lance.” Pidge crossed her arms, switching from sarcasm mode to friend mode. Her face softened and she once again patted the pillow on the floor beside her. Keith moved the pillow, sat down, and buried his face into Pidge’s hair. Pidge didn’t move, she knew then that the situation was serious. Keith was only physically affectionate with her when he was seriously down.

“Well…” he spoke from within her wild locks, “He’s got a really great smile. Like _really_ great. His teeth are perfect, his jawline is perfect, and he’s kinda tall? And, this sounds really horribly like badly cliché, but his eyes are so so _blue,_ Pidge. But I don’t know if he thinks the same about me, you know? Hell, I don’t even know if he’s into guys at all.”

“You don’t need to worry about any of that. The time will come and you’ll find out. Or Shay will because she likes getting dirt on everybody. It seems to me though, that you just think he’s hot. You don’t really know anything about him do you? Do you guys have anything in common?”

“Not really, I guess. We haven’t talked outside of work stuff.”

“Well, I guess that really speaks about your taste. There’s always a catch, however, my dear Keith. I think you should trust your instincts, you’ve got really good ones. Like, crazy good ones. Has your gut ever been wrong? I don’t think so. But more importantly, whatever happens, I’ll always be there for you ok? You’re my best friend, I don’t think I could go on without you, idiot. So if your taste in boys wrecks your emotional stability, just know that I can probably kick their asses. And I will do so happily and without question.” Pidge reached out beside her and pulled Keith’s waist closer to her side. She could feel him smile from her scalp. He exhaled into her wild locks.

“Okay, now let go before someone sees my soft side.” She playfully pushed him away and Keith laughed along with her.

“Thank you, Pidge.”

 

-

The next day, Monday, Keith was finally off, so when he finished up at school, he went over to the store to pick up his tips. Shay, Pidge, and Allura were on the floor. Allura had stepped away to speak to the district manager, Coran—who was there to help with the fall setup. Allura’s store was Coran’s favorite, she had the best sales, cleanliness scores, and customer ratings in the entire district. Allura respected Coran as he was one of her father’s closest friends. Keith respected Coran because he was a twenty year Starbucks veteran, and he had really seen it all.

Keith walked into the back and greeted the girl who was sorting out the tips. It was Nyma. She was nice, but he couldn’t help but feel like she was hiding something. Every single guy customer that came through would flirt with her and generally be gross and annoying, but she would have none of it. She was a great barista and her customer service was legendary. She saw Keith and waved sweetly at him.

“Hey Keith! Yours are over here, make sure to sign them off.” Keith initialed the paper by his name, and was almost out the door when she caught him off guard with a question.

“How are you liking Lance?” Keith’s heart stopped for some reason, and he turned back to check her face. She was still smiling and her eyes read ‘trouble is coming’. He couldn’t decide if that was intentional of her or not.

“He’s alright, I guess. He really likes to bar—” she interrupted him.

“Don’t you think he’s pretty cute? I mean, He’s really adorable and kind of funny. The other day, he was hitting on me pretty hard. We’ve even been texting but I don’t know if I’m into him quite yet.” She giggled at the thought, and Keith could feel his entire body slump.

“…Congratulations. Listen, I’ve gotta get back to school, sorry. I’ll see you later, Nyma.” He lied about returning to school and walked away without another word.

 _“At least I won’t have to worry about_ that _anymore.”_ He thought to himself as he left the building.

Once he got into his car, he pulled out his phone and saw that he had received a message from Rolo.

Keith’s day just got a whole lot worse.

-

Lance, on the other hand, was having a wonderful day. His English class had just ended, and he and Hunk were going down to the beach so Hunk could teach him to surf. His phone buzzed in his pocket as he grabbed his notebook up off his desk. It was Nyma, his coworker (who was pretty cute but not as notably cute and hot as Keith). The two had been texting since Lance’s last shift in which he met her. She was sweet and outgoing, not to mention totally beautiful.

_“Tips are ready!”_

_“Thanks, I’ll be there!”_

Lance met Hunk at his car (affectionately named Blue) and they went over to the store and picked up his tip bag from Nyma, who was making a weird face as she began putting all the tip materials away. Lance, always a virtuous friend, spoke to her.

“Are you ok, Nyma? You look frustrated.”

“Yeah I’m ok, I just don’t think that Keith likes me. He’s always so like, touchy and distant whenever I see him. What do you think his deal is? Do you think he doesn’t like me?” She looked to Lance for comfort, and Lance blushed when he looked at her fiercely contemplative face.

“Oh. Sorry. I don’t know about that, he seems pretty cool with me! Although, I’m not too close with him either, so I can’t really say… Is there anything I can do for you? Some friends and I are going to the beach right now if you wanna join in.” Lance waggled his eyebrows as she clocked out on the computer in the back, small smile just on the tips of her lips.

“Thanks, Lance, you’re the sweetest. I’m good though, I’m about to be off and I’ll just go home and take a bubble bath to forget my worries.” She smiled brightly and giggled at him and Lance wanted to die on the spot. She was soooo gorgeous. Lance thought then of Keith, why wouldn’t he like Nyma? Lance was still pretty new to the store, so he didn’t know the social dynamics quite yet. Maybe he needed to be more careful with both Keith and Nyma.

“See ya later then, girl!” he said almost nervously.

When Lance returned he saw Hunk talking to the girl on register. It was Shay. Shay waved at Lance and Hunk looked a little embarrassed. Lance waved back and said hello to his coworker, raising a questioning eyebrow to his friend as Shay told Hunk to text her as they left the store.

“You’re already hitting up my coworkers I see.” Lance had his evil smirk on, knowing full well that Hunk never flirted with anyone, even if they were into him. He hadn’t even been on a date since (about) middle school as a result.

“I wasn’t, ‘hitting her up’, Lance! We were just talking! We’re both environmental engineering majors and she wanted to know if we could study together sometime.”

“Study for what class? Does she go to our school?”

“No… she goes to Balmera University. She’s studying how the abuse of our planet can cause eco-systemic imbalance and what that means for the species of the planet. At least, that’s what she said her thesis is going to be when she goes for her doctorate.”

“So… she doesn’t want to study with you, she wants you to go on a date with her so you can guys can gush over nerdy stuff? Cute, Hunk, cute! I like it! You deserve a girl who’s as intelligent as she is nice.” Lance laughed as he hopped into the driver’s seat of his car and turned it on. Hunk sighed, exasperated, and leaned his head back over the passenger seat.

“Are you still talking to that Nyma girl though? Aren’t you trying to date her?”

“Whoa, whoa. Not _date_ , perhaps, but see if she is worth dating, in a sense.” Lance quipped; he still hadn’t mentioned Keith at all to his best friends. “Is Shiro gonna meet us at the beach?” he tried changing the subject on his friend, and it worked. Hunk could worry about his love life when it finally succeeded in killing him.

“He’s supposed to. Work has been kicking his butt lately so we’ll see.” Hunk went through his phone to look for Shiro’s text.

“I suppose we shall.”

Shiro ended up making it to the beach just before Lance and Hunk. He was one of those people that never broke a promise as long as they lived. Lance was still thinking about Keith as his day carried on.

Despite this, both he and Shiro learned the nuances of surfing from Hunk, the master. Lance was too busying showing off to really get good at it, but he tried. Shiro seemed like a natural in comparison, as he took everything he did seriously. Well, that and he had killer upper body strength and thighs. Hunk was graceful as he had been doing it his whole life, since his mother had taught him.

When all was said and done, and the day was winding down, Lance asked Hunk and Shiro to follow him to a secret place. He wanted to see the sunset. He walked them to his favorite spot, it was on some guy’s property but he was never home, so Lance took his chances.

“This seems a little dangerous, Lance. Are you sure that we’re allowed to be here?” Shiro asked, raising a delicately made up eyebrow.

“Its fine, Shiro, trust me.” Lance threw a joyous (but nonetheless mischievous) grin over his shoulder as the three climbed down the sloped hill.

Besides, the spot was mostly on a weird cliff, the guy’s house was on the street above, so they weren’t totally on the residence. The cliff hung over a small patch of pristine sand that got swallowed by the waves as the tide rolled in for the evening. Other than that, there was water everywhere, and Lance felt like he was home. The sight of the water made him want to jump in impulsively. He watched the sun pass under the sea, and closed his eyes with the dying of the light. Hunk and Shiro followed suit, sitting in understanding and reveling in the natural beauty.

Keith, on the other hand, was on the other side of town; he was in the middle of a shoot with his friends. They were all photographers or film students; and they were trying to get good shots on the highway after the sun disappeared. Keith’s car battery had died after parking on the shoulder of the road. He kicked his shoes against the side of the old thing, a red 1980 Mercedes 450sl convertible; the only thing his parents could leave behind for him before they died. Affectionately titled “Red”.

His friend Rolo stayed behind with him while the others went off. He was back in town for the month while he was on vacation from his professional photography gig. He had known Keith since he was in high school, he was the volunteer afterschool photography teacher while he was in college. Keith was more or less his friend before he had even graduated.

He leaned against Keith’s car and let conversation flow. Keith always looked up to Rolo because he was just so cool and mature. _Maybe_ Keith had a tiny little crush on him when he was younger, about seventeen and not yet old enough to realize that Rolo was a mentor and friend, not lover. Keith had told him about it once, but they hadn’t really done anything about it.

“This is quite the ride you’ve got here, Keith.”

“You and I both know I’ve always had Red, loser.”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to be so hot headed, kid.”

Keith laughed and watched Rolo smirk and light a cigarette next to him. He was hoping the tow guy would be there soon as it was getting cold. He was looking at the ground while in thought when he saw a flash and heard a shutter from beside him.

“Did you really take a picture of me when I wasn’t ready?”

“Sorry, tiny, you just looked really cute. Want my jacket? You’re cold.” Keith’s body shivered in betrayal at a particularly cold breeze as his words left his mouth. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining things or not, but he could have sworn that Rolo’s breath hitched slightly at his shiver.

“Oh, Mr. Rolo, thank you for your generosity! For the record, I’m not ‘Tiny’—we’re like, almost the same height. And I certainly don’t need your dumb jacket.” Although it was a [pretty] cool leather jacket that Keith would easily wear if it were someone else offering. He hated it when Rolo babied him. He hated being treated like a child by someone used to have a crush on.

“You’re still ‘kid’ to me. You always will be.” Rolo reached out and patted Keith’s head, letting it slide down slowly to rest on his shoulder. Keith shrugged him off and rolled his eyes.

“Remind me not to take you out past midnight ever again. When I do, you say really weird stuff.”

Before Rolo could bite back, the tow truck pulled up and Keith went to talk to the guy right away. Rolo followed Keith up to the window, and once all was said and done, got Keith to ride on the back of his motorcycle all the way back to his house, car in tow just behind.

Needless to say when Rolo dropped Keith off—just after one am, his heart throbbed when the kid forgot to give his jacket back.

 

-

The next day Keith was training Lance on closing. It was easy to teach, but hard to grasp and execute perfectly like Keith knew how to. It was just them and the shift on duty working. Keith’s car was still out of order, so Pidge had brought him to work. The battery was difficult to replace for cheap, so Keith was going to have to wait until he got paid next to be able to afford it. The battery itself was in the $200 range and the service fee for the workers to install it was its own $100. That would equal almost a third of Keith’s entire paycheck, and he didn’t want to have to dip into his savings quite yet.

The pair was generally focused on working, only speaking when it was absolutely necessary to get a task completed. Lance seemed almost shy when asking Keith for help with things. However, as the night continued and they made small talk, they each opened up more and more. Just casual things like “how long has that weird guy been in the bathroom?” to “I’ve always hated the smell of earl grey”, they both began speaking on fun terms.

It got to a point where Lance was chatting him up when they weren’t focused on tasking. Keith learned about Lance’s entire family. His sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins—the whole McClain shebang. Keith laughed at every cute story, genuinely, in a way he hadn’t laughed before. He felt attached to people he hadn’t even met. In turn, Keith told Lance about the small stray black cat that visited his apartment every day in search of food. He told him about how Pidge and her family was the closest thing to a real family that he had, aside from distant relatives that just wanted in on his parents’ inheritance, which they didn’t know was just a car and about $10,000. And even then, Keith left out how nice the car was, just in case.

Talking about Keith’s experience made Lance quiet down a little bit. As if he were feeling sorry for him. Keith was just about to give him the ‘don’t feel sorry for me’ speech. But then something changed in the other’s eyes, they went from cool calm waters to fierce crashing waves.

“You’re a film major? You said that earlier, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I’m a film major too. I’m trying to get into directing! My favorites are classic romance and black and white stuff.”

“My specialty’s French Nouvelle-Vague. But my favorite director is Wong Kar-wai, no exceptions.” Keith smiled for the billionth time that night, Lance’s heart was overflowing.

“So you’re into that French jump-cut, huh? You like on location shooting and perfect composition and stuff?”

“You could say I’m an expert.” Keith’s voice was like crackling firewood in Lance’s ears. His warmth made Lance forget that the AC was blasting inside the small store. Keith was practically the sun.

“Do you speak any French?”

“Oui, mais juste un peu, mon ami. Mon japonais est mieux que mon français.” Keith’s heart pounded a little more as Lance’s eyes shot open.

“Holy crap that’s cool.” _More like so frickin’ hot._ Lance felt like he was floating.

“I try.” Lance was doomed when Keith flashed a full smile, all teeth.

“Are you free after this? Like, are you hungry or anything?” Lance suddenly found himself asking. He couldn’t believe his own voice was speaking before his better judgement could seal him off. Keith’s face flooded a light shade of pink.

“U-uh, usually Pidge and I just go stuff our faces with burritos from that weird taco shack just up the street. But if you want to do something else, I don’t mind going with you. My car is broken at the moment, however.”

“That’s ok, Blue can definitely handle you. If I can, she can too.” Keith covered his smile with the back of his hand. Lance seriously wanted to kiss him. He let himself imagine it.

“Should I tell Pidge not to come pick me up?” Keith asked, threats of another full smile at the corners of his mouth. Lance’s knees were wobbling.

“Yeah. Tell her you’re my problem now.” He couldn’t help the smirk and eyebrow lift, it was his default flirting face. Keith punched his shoulder lightly, and ran into the back to get onto his phone and let Pidge know. Keith needed a midnight adventure with a stranger like he needed fresh air after a long run. He looked quickly out on the floor, Lance was sweeping the back line and Keith noticed how short the iconic green apron was on him. It barely reached the other boy’s knees. Keith loved it. He turned his attention back to his phone, hand flying a mile a minute trying to keep up with his brain as he typed a message out to Pidge.

_“Pidge you don’t have to get me from work!!! this is really happening holy shit”_

_“What’s happening? Are u in trouble? you don’t need me to ocme get you?’_

_“no!!! I’m going out w Lance after I get off!!!!!”_

_“like A Date™?”_

_“Idk! We’re just gonna do something but I don’t even know what yet! Also ok gotta get back to work ! see you later!”_

_“Ok but text me if he tries to get weird with you!!!”_

Pidge smiled at her phone and shook her head. She wished Keith luck and went back to writing her lab entry for her chemistry class.

The close went ultra-smoothly because Keith was fast as lightning. In a matter of ten minutes, Keith had the entire bar and lobby clean, along with the bathroom. Lance stood star struck at his muscle memory. And as soon as the doors locked behind them and they wished their coworker goodnight, Keith and Lance’s own night began.

“Which car is the famous Blue?” Keith asked, and when Lance pointed the car out, Keith’s eyes blew open wide. Lance took notice.

“Oh yeah, that’s her right there. You like?” he cocked his head back and smirked down at the other. Keith met his eyes.

“I’ve—literally got the same car, except I call her Red. I inherited her from my parents.”

“What?! That’s crazy! My dad is a mechanic, some lady brought Blue in so my dad could fix her up to be sold. But he bought her on the spot for my eighteenth birthday.” Lance went from surprised to nostalgic at the memory, Keith stood in amazement. He wasn’t one for believing in chance stuff like coincidence. However, he trusted his gut, as per Pidge’s advice; and his gut was telling him to take a chance with Lance.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Keith asked, looking up at Lance again. They were still standing at the store front, and Blue was about halfway into the parking lot. “Race ya.” And before Lance could even take a breath, Keith was gone. Lance sputtered but composed himself and bounded off. His long legs gave him assistance in catching up with Keith. But the other’s stamina was surely what allowed him to win. Also that sneaky head start.

After making it to Blue, the two boys stood on either side of the trunk. Lance opened it with his key and they threw their aprons and bags in. After shutting the trunk and hopping into the vehicle, they looked to each other once more. Lance started his car, and Keith pretended to be looking through his phone while Lance stared at him again.

“So do you still want to eat? I could eat like fifty tacos right now if you wanna go to the sketchy taco shack. Or, we could go to that late night Thai place. Or if you’re one of those breakfast anytime anywhere people we could go downtown to one that Hollywood themed diner that’s open 24/7.”

“Hmm… that all sounds pretty promising. Although I think I want—and don’t you dare complain—coffee. But not like Starbucks, like a real coffee place coffee, you know? You haven’t worked long enough yet to realize, but Starbucks stuff doesn’t hold a candle to some of the independent places that there are to go.”

“That’s fair enough. Do you have a spot in mind?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Is it open late?”

“Until 2 AM.”

“Is there food-food there? Not just croissants?”

“Indeed there is.”

Keith told Lance where to go and they ended up at this place by the beach that had Lance head over heels. He knew there was a small shopping district if you walked up past the hotels that lined the beach, but he didn’t know that there was actually fun stuff to do over there. He thought that it was mainly touristy shops and gimmicky, expensive food. But Keith was showing him the way.

The outside patio of the place was full of people smoking hookahs, cigars, and cigarettes. Lance swore he smelled a touch of marijuana, but he wasn’t judging. Once inside, there were two levels to choose from, the upper level was the bar that doubled as a music performance venue. The downstairs café where the two would be lounging boasted a large lobby with beautifully mismatched secondhand furniture. Paintings by local artists hung on the wall adorned with price tags on them for those who were interested. The food smelled bomb and Keith watched Lance’s reaction the entire time. He grabbed menus for them to browse.

Lance looked up and saw that the entire back wall was not a wall at all, but instead a window overlooking the ocean. The café was located on top of a hill that sloped down to the beach and had that winning view as a result. His eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets as he turned to Keith and nudged him. Keith almost fell over from the force of his taller friend’s strength.

“Did you know that this is the best spot ever? I’m so mad I didn’t know about it sooner? What the heck?” Lance gawked and gaped. He watched the ocean glimmer black under the light of the moon. He kept switching his head back and forth between Keith and then the ocean. A couple of people saw Lance and began giving him weird looks, Keith just laughed and sat them by that miraculous window. Lance immediately pressed his face up against said window, still admiring the view.

“Are you going to look at the menu?” Keith was still smiling, a new habit that he had developed as of late.

Lance turned his attention back to Keith, his eyes were practically shouting ‘thank you’ as he opened up the menu and browsed.

Not too long after, Keith saw Lance stand up.

“Do you know what you’re getting, dude?” He reached his hand out to Keith for his menu, waiting patiently.

“I can order it myself, you know.”

“Sure, but you need to save our table because it’s the best in the house. I’ll buy this time! Now tell me what you want before I pick something for you.” Lance smiled sheepishly and Keith’s heart began fluttering like eyelashes. He flushed a little bit as well.

“Uh. Just get me an almond milk cappuccino. That’s it.” His stomach growled in protest, but it didn’t seem like Lance had heard.

“You aren’t hungry?”

“Nope!” Another, louder growl forced itself from his midsection. Lance raised an eyebrow this time.

“You sure? I don’t mind, Keith.”

“Positive!”

“You’re crazy, I’ll be right back.” As Lance walked away, Keith’s blush spread through to his shoulders, he could feel his entire body heating up. He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of the jacket he was wearing, suddenly remembering that it belonged to Rolo. Then, doubly embarrassed, he resorted to slamming his head down against the table, hoping his burning forehead wouldn’t sear the surface.

He lifted his head up to see if Lance was coming back. He was standing in line waiting to order, wallet in his hand and phone in the other. His legs were amazingly long and lean, and he was wearing a pair of beat up white converse that were definitely against the Starbucks dress code. His eyes travelled up to his shirt, a short sleeve white button up covered by a big, light wash denim jacket. Keith did his best to be inconspicuous, but it was difficult when Lance was the most attractive person in the room. He snuck a picture as best he could and sent it to Pidge on snapchat.

He received a response almost immediately.

It was a picture of Pidge, nose wrinkled and eyes wide behind her glasses, the glow of her laptop lighting up her face. The caption read:

_“Gross no nerds allowed”_

Keith screenshotted the picture for blackmail purposes and snorted. He shut his eyes and set his phone back down, letting his head rest inside his arms on the table. He shut his eyes. Suddenly, he felt hands in his hair. They were carefully shuffling his locks, and he melted at the touch. As he shifted to lift his head, the hand shied away, and Keith mentally begged for it to stay. It was Lance, he had resumed his seat across the table, and he had a number for their order sitting on the surface. He smiled sheepishly as Keith looked at him.

“I got you something. I hope you’ll like it. In the words of my grandmother, ‘you’re too skinny, you need to feed him!' Although she was usually saying that about me.” Lance grinned ear to ear.

Keith laughed and shook his head. It reminded Lance of the sound of harmonious lovebirds, like the ones his grandparents in Cuba had. It sounded like total happiness. He was still watching even as the food came. Keith’s eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sheer amount that Lance had bought them. There was eggs, bacon, toast, hash browns, four tacos, ravioli, chili fries, two cannolis, and finally Keith’s almond milk cappuccino.

“You bought all of this under the impression we’d be able to finish it?”

Lance snapped out of his trance, “I know we’ll finish it,” he smirked, “at least I will anyway.”

“Is that a challenge?” Keith cocked his head back and smirked back at Lance, the latter’s heart nearly stopped dead in its tracks.

“W-well hey, I just wanna find out if Kogane Keith can eat as fast as he runs. You didn’t go easy on me in the parking lot, you know.” Keith nodded, smirk still standing.

“Shall we begin then?”

“Only if you’re ready, baby.”

Keith almost choked on the taco he already had in his mouth when Lance replied. Lance laughed as Keith’s eyes blew wide.

Lance was the clear winner of the food eating contest. He had not only eaten the majority of the food, but also did it much quicker than Keith could have ever hoped to. Keith felt like he was going to die he was so full.

“Do you have anything else in mind? It’s almost 11, if that means anything to you.” Keith checked his phone for the time, and realized he had at least a dozen text messages and calls from Rolo. He decided to ignore them for the time being. They were probably all about his stolen jacket anyway.

“I’m on no schedule, my friend. Do you want to go walk down by the beach and watch the seals? No! Wait, I’ll take you to this cool hill, if you want to go with me, that is. You can see the entire city of Altea from up there, I promise.” Lance’s eyes were asking so nicely that Keith couldn’t resist.

“Well, let’s get going then.”

 

-

Lance put Frank Sinatra on his car’s radio as they drove up all the winding streets and lofty hillsides to get to the perfect spot. Along the way, there were literal mansions, beach houses, and other expensive looking domiciles. Keith had to do double takes for some of them, that’s how immaculate they were. When they reached the very top of said hill, Lance pulled into a spot and parked, turning off his lights. The radio, however, he left on.

“I have a blanket in my trunk if you’re cold. Do want to get out and look around? There’s probably rabbits.” Lance popped his trunk and hopped out before Keith could reply and reappeared with the blanket. They both stepped out of the car and were immediately assaulted by a strong, cold breeze. Keith, who had a low tolerance for cold, hogged the entire blanket; creating a cocoon around himself as he looked at Lance, shooting him a face that said, ‘are you _serious_?’

The laugh that Lance let out was strong enough to scare away the rabbits that had started coming toward them in hopes of food. It was loud and powerful like an orchestra, and suddenly Keith found himself laughing too.

“C’mon, there’s benches over here.” Lance said, wiping a tear away. Keith wondered if he was cold too, or if he had honestly laughed that hard.

They sat on one of the benches and began talking again; it was mostly just more of Lance’s family stuff. Keith was happy to listen. He saw Lance shiver once, and he immediately shifted in the blanket to make room, offering one end of the blanket with his free hand. If it wasn’t so dark, Keith would have sworn that Lance had cursed under his breath and was blushing wildly. He felt a warm hand with cold fingertips catch his, then a thigh pressing against his own, and then an arm around his shoulder. Suddenly, Keith was blushing alongside him.

“Sorry. It’s more comfortable like this right?” Keith jumped and let loose a tiny yelp at the surprise of Lance’s phone buzzing against his thigh. Lance sheepishly apologized and moved his phone to the opposite side. Keith let out a shaky breath and looked out over the hill, trying his best to hide his blush from Lance.

“You really can see all of Altea from up here… It’s really nice.” Keith looked down at all the lights from the city, still glimmering and diamond-like even though it was nearly midnight now. He found himself yawning at that fact, and maybe he leaned his head against Lance’s shoulder a little bit. Lance definitely didn’t notice and he _definitely_ didn’t rest his head on Keith’s either. Keith felt as if his heart was going to erupt into flames and burn right through him. Lance felt like his entire body was weightless, floating and falling to pieces. But no one dared to move.

Neither one really knew how much longer they stayed like that, but it was Lance who spoke up first.

“We should probably get home before we fall asleep here.” He had the sleepiest, dreamiest smile as he looked into Keith’s eyes. They stood together, as Keith whispered “Okay” and walked back to Lance’s car. Keith was hoping that Lance would ask him to stay overnight at his house, or that Keith could summon the courage to ask him to do the same. However, his voice couldn’t find any courage.

Keith rested his head against the window once inside, and he couldn’t stop himself from quickly drifting off. Lance looked over at him, _‘What should I do? He’s asleep…’_ he decided to snap a photo and send it to Hunk first.

 _“Hey Hunk, this is my new crush, wish me luck”_ was all he wrote as a caption, mostly due in part to his drowsiness.

Lance texted Pidge next. It was 12:45AM.

_“Hey, it’s Lance from work. Where does Keith live? He’s asleep in my car rn and idk where to take him”_

Thankfully, she was awake at that odd hour and began typing in response.

 _“It’s 521 Paladin Place, apartment R1. I’ll meet you over there.”_ she replied back. Pidge really didn’t trust Lance at all, did she? It made Lance wonder if Keith had questionable people in his life before. If he had, then Pidge was undeniably the one who picked up the pieces afterwards.

Lance dropped Keith off in front of the complex where he lived where Pidge was waiting—phone in hand. It was probably better off that way anyway, as both Keith and Lance were half asleep. They bid each other goodnight and parted ways. Lance watched as Pidge and Keith disappeared up some stairs before he drove off.

If Pidge hadn’t been there, he was sure he would’ve kissed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tuxedo mocha = half dark chocolate and half white chocolate espresso drink! You can also get tuxedo hot chocolate if you aren't into caffeine!  
> cappuccino = an espresso beverage with shots at the bottom, and then equal parts steamed milk and wonderful fluffy foam. Many people order this drink without knowing what is really is and then return it because they only got 'half a drink compared to what they paid for it'. cappuccinos cannot be ordered without foam, that' would just be a latte.  
> caffe latte = means 'coffee milk' in Italian, espresso beverage with espresso at the bottom, steamed milk, and a small dollop of foam on top, or latte art!  
> macchiato = I didn't actually explain this drink last time oops, it is usually just foamed milk and the espresso shots, but the more well-known Starbucks version is the caramel macchiato, which is more like an inverted vanilla latte with caramel sauce! it is when the espresso is poured on top of the beverage as opposed to the bottom. It leaves a coffee mark on the foam hence 'macchiato' (mark/stain in Italian)! 
> 
> Thank you so much again for reading, lovelies! See you soon!


	3. café cubano (con espumita)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things are picking up full speed ahead!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the patience, friends! I spent a little more time at Disney than I was expecting lmao... but I have returned and now back to your regularly scheduled klance broadcast! c:

Lance woke up the next morning with a few texts from Pidge, Shiro, Hunk, and Allura. However, the only ones he cared immediately about were the ones he saw from Keith.

 _“hey loser, thanks for taking me out, I really had a lot of fun, hope we can do it again sometime!”_ with a few choice emojis. It was sent at 1:30 AM, right after being dropped off at home. He was probably all cozied up in his bed, and Lance let himself imagine that he had a big, goofy smile on his face just before falling asleep.

He must have reread the text about a million times before deciding to reply.

 _“no way thanks for coming with me bby!”_ he was going to add ‘you’re the coolest’, ‘I really want to kiss you’, or ‘will you marry me’, but he figured that those could wait for another time.

Lance felt as if he could conquer the day. He jumped out of bed, ran downstairs into the kitchen without putting a shirt on, and kissed his momma on the top of her head. She shot him a look, a smile tugging on her lips, wordlessly awaiting an explanation.

“Just a boy, momma, nothing to worry about.” Lance had grabbed up their brand new little baby corgi, lovingly named Lluvia, and began dancing with her around the room. She tucked her big ears flat against her head and drew herself closer to Lance’s chest, looking for safety. Lance’s mother looked at him with wide blue eyes after what he had said. Her eyes were identical to Lance’s, they were the only two with blue eyes in the entire family. His dad _loved_ to tell her _‘he has your eyes’_ any opportunity he could. She resumed smiling as she told Lance to leave the poor puppy alone while he flashed his own teeth at her.

“A boy, Lance? Oh my god. How long has it been since your last boyfriend?”

“Not _that_ long! And I dated a few girls in between that too.” Lluvia whined for pets, Lance obliged.

“Whatever you say. You know people only like you because you’ve got my looks.” She snapped her fingers and shook her hips, “Irresistible!”

“Gross, mom! No way!” Lance made an exaggerated disgusted face as they both laughed. Lance’s nephew and niece came bounding into the room after hearing all the commotion. They were seven and ten respectively, and their tío Lance was hands down their favorite living person. Sometimes he did their homework for them because it was relatively easy for someone his age, sometimes he let them paint his nails or draw on his face, among other rather embarrassing things. Needless to say, the two wild, sweet, and round eyed children never failed to make Lance want kids of his own.

His nephew, Vincent, clung to his thigh while his niece, Alexia, grabbed Lluvia and head-butted his stomach. He grunted at the force but began laughing once he regained his breath. They were over for the week while their parents were celebrating their anniversary. Lance loved it when they stayed over, he was suffering more from the empty nest syndrome than his mother was. He loved having a full, happy house that was always dancing with chatter and laughter. He hated feeling alone.

“Tío Lance! Tío Lance! Come play Mario Kart with us!” Vincent put his chin on Lance’s hip, looking up at his face from down below. Alexia’s eyes sparkled the color of a polished violin with hopeful excitement from where she was standing next to Lance’s mother in the kitchen, Lluvia squirming in her arms.

“Okay, okay, you know I can’t say no to you guys. But you only have an hour or so until you have to be ready for school!” Lance led the children (who, at this point, were groaning at the mention of school) into living room where all the entertainment stuff was, grabbing a slice of tostada cubana and a café con leche for himself from the counter. He was off for the day, anyway.

_  
_

_-_

Keith awoke to his door being knocked upon. He shook his head, hair an absolute mess, and threw on some shorts and a baggy t-shirt before slowly approaching the source of the noise. He checked his phone, and there were about a million more texts from Rolo. He saw the texts from Lance and his heart shot up into his throat. _Omg he called me ‘bby’?_ He could feel a smile break onto his face naturally as he remembered their sort-of-kind-of date and how he hated that he got tired so quickly. Maybe if he had stayed awake long enough to have Lance walk him home, they could’ve maybe shared a kiss. Sighing, he checked the rest, all from Rolo.

The most recent message made Keith’s eyes pop open and awaken immediately.

_“here”_

WHAT?

He nearly threw his front door open, eyes completely confused as he came face to face with his older friend. Their eyes met and Rolo snickered at how caught off guard Keith appeared. He shivered nervously as he noticed his older friend look him up and down.

“Why are you here?” Keith asked, stepping outside his door. The walkway was so cold on his bare feet that he flinched a little.

“Are you tellin’ me you didn’t read any of the messages I sent you?” Rolo shook his head as a smirk grew on his face. “You and I are going out today. We’re gonna do another shoot. Just you and me. Fun fun fun.”

“Oh. I… I can’t today. I’ve got class at 9:30. And it’s,” he looked away to check his phone, “…8. And then after that, I’ve got work. I should probably start getting ready right now, in fact…” Keith shied away from Rolo’s arm as it came to rest upon his shoulders. Just as he went to let himself back inside his apartment, he felt a hand on his other wrist. Rolo turned him around to face him once again, a confident smile was on his face, but his eyes were somewhat severe. Keith tensed, but did his best to remain calm.

“Busy, busy, busy. That’s what you film students always are. Skip class today, call out of work. I’m taking you out whether you like it or not.”

“As impulsive as I usually am, it’s just not a good idea, Rolo. Now, I’ve really got to run, see you later?” Keith smiled sheepishly, pulled his arm from the other’s grasp, and stepped into his apartment. He lingered in the doorway, waiting to hear Rolo’s reaction before closing the door behind him. Big mistake number one.

“You want action? Fine, me too. I’m in an action-y mood.” Confused, Keith furrowed his brows before being pulled once again from his apartment and into a kiss from his older friend. His eyes blew wide and crossed as he looked into the other’s face. He heard himself make a shocked noise that sounded like a hum of approval, the other offering his own hum in response.

When Rolo released him, Keith sputtered.

“B-b-but, why?”

“Don’t you like me, Keith?”

Keith’s face dropped.

 _“_ _No!_ Well, I mean, yes. As a friend of course. And you know that I had a tiny crush on you when I was in high school. But, I mean, _now_ … Well, that’s a completely different story.”

Rolo opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of the Indiana Jones theme song blaring from Keith’s phone. Who the hell could be calling him? He hoped it was Allura calling him in early so he could get out of the strange predicament he was in the midst of. Rolo looked confused this time around and only watched as Keith answered, barely even checking the caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Keith! What’s up? I didn’t think you’d be awake right now!”

“Lance?”

“Yeah! Is this a bad time right now? I’m sorry. I’ll let you go if you need me to.”

“No! It’s fine! Not a big deal. Did you need something?”

Rolo opened his mouth again and Keith gave him the “I’m on the phone” finger.

“If you aren’t busy, I was wondering if you wanted to just come to the beach with me. I’m gonna take my nephew and niece to school in like an hour or so and then I’m free all day. Are you down?” Keith saw an opportunity for escape and decided to go for it. Rolo was still standing there, getting more annoyed by the second, especially after hearing that another dude was on the line, and Keith had to make a move swiftly if he wanted to dodge a real bullet.

“Oh, the schedule, you need this week’s schedule? I’ve got it, let me send it to you.”

“What? I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out, I promise!”

“Here, I’m sending it to you now.”

Without ending the call, Keith went to their established conversation and began typing.

_“Lance, do you think you could come to my house like right now? It’s urgent”_

_“Absolutely”_

“Keith I’m on my way, do you want me to stay on the phone?”

“Ok Lance, see you later.” And, if not a little hesitantly, Keith ended the call. Rolo and Keith both stood wordless for a little bit. They stared at each other rather intensely, both afraid of setting off a theoretical landmine. Keith could finally see the boundless affection and desire in Rolo’s eyes. He couldn’t help but be somewhat afraid, and definitely unsure. Without blinking, he went back inside his apartment and closed the door swiftly behind him, locking it as well.

He ran into his bedroom and grabbed the leather jacket from the floor and marched it right out to Rolo, tossing it gently at him. They made eye contact again and Keith sighed, trying his best to make it as not shaky as possible.

“Well? Are you just going to leave me hanging like that?” Rolo asked, traces of pain in his voice as his hand clenched over the returned jacket. Keith ran a hand through his hair before speaking.

“We will talk about this when I am ready. Please, go home.” Keith locked his door again. And he felt numb and weightless as he wandered into his kitchen to start brewing coffee. He heard Rolo curse to himself as he stormed down the stairs. From his phone, he excused himself via email from his class that morning—his nerves were utterly wrecked.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but all of a sudden, the timer for his French press went off, his doorbell rang, and his phone blared to life; and these combined things only grated on his fragile nerves ever the more. Cursing, he finished his French press and answered his phone, another call from (hopefully) Lance.

“Lance?” he breathed more than said as he wandered over to his front door again for the millionth time that long morning. He peeked out of the peephole and saw Lance’s wonderful face contorted with worry. He hung up again and threw his door open. Lance rushed inside and saw big, angry waves of frustration forming in Keith’s absolutely amazing eyes. His heart was aching, longing to kiss them away, but Lance knew better than to think those selfish things when what Keith needed was a friend. Lance smiled when he saw Keith’s pajamas.

“Keith are you ok? What happened? Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not yet.” He shook his head and his voice came out vicious, sharp with frustration. Lance could only compare it to the sound of shattering glass in his mind. The other’s face softened when he realized that he had snapped at his friend. Keith walked up to Lance and smacked his head right into his shoulder, and wrapped his arms around his waist. Lance tentatively patted Keith’s hair, and put his other hand over his shoulders. Keith was so, so cold. Lance radiated warmth.

“I’m here for you. It’s ok if you don’t want to tell me. Just know that you’re ok.”

“I’m literally so damn angry, Lance. My body feels like it’s on fire.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I accidentally knocked on the wrong apartment door and had to hide when the people came out. Basically, I dingdong ditched your neighbors.” Keith’s tense lips half smiled at that.

“Idiot.” He sighed, pulling away from the embrace to wander into his kitchen. Lance was screaming internally at not only being in Keith’s apartment, but also at the cute shorts he was wearing, the baggy shirt, and the way his hair was still rumpled from sleep. These all added up to disastrously adorable in Lance’s book. And when Keith emerged from his kitchen with two cups of coffee, Lance knew he was doomed.

“I don’t know how much sugar or milk you like, so I left yours black.” Keith smiled, eyes clearly tired and not quite ready for facing the day. He looked into his own mug before taking a long giant gulp of the stuff. Lance mimicked him despite the fact that it was black and he hated bitter coffee more than anything else on the face of the earth.

“Thanks, dude.” He shivered at the bitterness, “Listen, you don’t have to go to the beach with me. And don’t feel bad about it! I want you to be okay first, ok? You can come with me if you wanna drop my niece and nephew off at school. And then after that we can get breakfast or something? Or we don’t have to do anything. But I want you to be cool, so just tell me. I won’t be mad if you don’t feel up to do anything.”

Keith bit his lip. He wanted to go with Lance so desperately. He knew the other was being as understanding as he could. If anyone could help bring his mood up, it would definitely be Lance. He had texted Pidge, but she was probably in class at the moment, and she never checked her phone during lecture. Keith finished off his coffee, feeling Lance’s eyes on him the whole time, and met his gaze as he lowered his mug.

“Let me get dressed.” Keith saw Lance’s eyes sparkle. It warmed him thoroughly to his core.

Maybe today would get better.

 

-

Lance was nervous to bring Keith into his house. Not only would his mom be extra investigative because he wasn’t Hunk or Shiro, but so would his niece and nephew, who sported crushes on the aforementioned two respectively and generally didn’t get along well with others. When Lance pulled into the driveway and parked, he turned to face Keith, who looked nervous and raised an eyebrow at him, shrugging away just a little bit.

“Uh, my mom and niece and nephew are annoying. But please try to bear with them. We’re all so close-knit that it’s weird when someone new pops in. If they’re weirding you out too much, just tell me.”

“Is that it? Dude you should see my distant relatives. They’re vultures.” Keith laughed into his fist.

Lance smiled sadly at his friend and patted his hair.

“Well then, let’s go.”

Upon entering the house, which was quite large for having only a few people currently living there, Keith heard small dog barks and the shrill voices of children bounding just out of sight toward their general direction. Once in view, Keith nearly hid behind Lance, the trio clearly not slowing down in their endeavors. The children bounced like ping pong balls into Lance’s arms, the tiny little puppy waddling right past them to sniff at Keith’s socks. A tall, wonderfully gorgeous brunette woman entered shortly thereafter; her hair was big like the eighties with curly wavy locks draping past her shoulders. Her skin was sun kissed and beautifully brown, while her eyes sharply contrasted this by how breathtakingly blue they were. Just like Lance’s. She scolded the children, a small crease in her brow. She could’ve easily been twenty-one or forty-one, but Keith already knew exactly who it was.

“Mama, this is Keith. He’s my friend from work.” Her eyes pierced through him and read him like a book. He couldn’t help but keep her gaze, fearing that if he faltered, that she would pounce him in an instant.

“Es este el chico que te gusta?”

“No me vayas a dichabar, Mamá!” Lance called out, blush invading his cheeks as his eyes wildly shifted from Keith to his mother. Keith raised an eyebrow as he watched the exchange.

“Esqueleto rumbero! No hable así a tu madre de esa manera!” Lance ducked away at that, not saying anything more. Keith was lost.

“Nice to meet you, Keith. I’m Lance’s mother, Zelia.” She smiled and reached out a hand, Keith took it, hoping his hands weren’t too sweaty and that his grip was strong enough for her. From the corner of his eye he saw Lance leave the room to help his nephew find something, his niece following behind them. His heart began racing. He was alone with Lance’s mom.

She noticed this too, and her perfect face lost some of its edge. She looked away for a moment, formulating, and then looked back at Keith again.

“Are you in school right now?”

“I am. I’m studying film at the moment.” She tilted her head in interest.

“My Lance is doing the same, I’m sure you know.” Keith only nodded, a polite smile on his lips. He wanted her to like him so bad, his heart was still racing. Were his eyes alright? Was his hair nice enough? Was het all enough? He wasn’t sure at all, but he would never let her know it.

“Do you speak Spanish, Keith?” She asked, eyes glittering.

“No, I don’t unfortunately. It’s a beautiful language, from what I’ve heard. I only speak Japanese, English, and French at the moment. I hope Lance will be up to teaching me Spanish.”

“French? Ah, teach Lance French and he’s yours! Darle un mate.” She giggled and Keith couldn’t help but blush. He knew he’d have to ask Lance what that meant later but he was almost scared. “Anyway, it was good to meet you Keith, I’ve heard much about you from Lance.” Her smile was youthful and mysterious as the conversation ended; her head nodding as she eyed Keith up and down one last time. It felt as if she was assessing him, gauging if he was worthy of Lance’s…friendship? Affection? It wasn’t clear.

The two heard Lance and the children return and Zelia left Keith be as she let Lluvia out the sliding glass door to the backyard. Lance gave Keith a look, seemingly asking what he and his mother were talking about, but Keith just smiled at him and followed the trio out front to pile into Lance’s car.

Driving to the school brought Keith’s nerves from the morning down, and he couldn’t help but just look at Lance from his peripheral vision. Lance had the best cheeks, the best nose, the best eyelashes, the best teeth, the best lips… Keith could’ve gone on discovering the bests that Lance had, but his thoughts were interrupted by the chattering of the children in the backseat.

He absolutely adored Vincent and Alexia, they were incredibly sweet. Both were eager to get to know him, it seemed. Vincent was a little timid, but loved video games, art, and singing. Alexia was a lot more rambunctious because she was the older of the two. Her interests included the junior swimming team she was a part of, playing guitar, and cooking (but only because tío Lance’s friend Hunk liked it).

The drive seemed longer than it was because of the lengthy conversations. The children hugged Lance through the window, and Keith couldn’t help but wish he got hugs also.

“¡Chao pescao!” He saluted them.

“¡Y a la vuelta picadillo!” They waved.

Lance watched them run off, a distant smile on his face. He turned to Keith, then.

“Breakfast on the beach?” Lance leaned toward Keith, raising his eyebrows and batting his eyelashes, which Keith noticed in that moment were very well taken care of, very plush. Keith blushed of course, looking from his friend’s eyelashes to his lips, before biting his own and responding.

“Breakfast on the beach.” He shook his head, hoping to dispel some of the want that was dusted across his entire being.

 

 

-

It was 8:32 AM when they reached the breakfast joint. It was a perfect little shack, about twenty feet away from the sand of the beach. There was also an equally as perfect little coffee stand right around the corner, where all the table seating was. Keith noticed that the very first sign visible upon entering the door says in big, red and white letters framed by palm trees:

**CASH ONLY**

Ah. He only carried his card around, and his tips were somewhere in his house. He tugged on Lance’s shirt to get his attention. They were waiting in line to place their order. Lance laughed at Keith threw his arm around his shoulders.

“Don’t worry about, dude. It’s on me.” Keith noticed how close Lance’s face was to his. All he had to do was get up on his toes and he could probably kiss him right there. The thought jumpstarted his heart.

“Wait. It was on you yesterday too! You can’t buy both days!”

“Well, let’s see.” Lance cocked his hip out and moved his hand down by Keith’s hips. “Cash only. Keith— that’s you, has no cash. Lance— that’s me, does. I don’t want to lose our place in line to go to an ATM, so it’s settled. My treat.” Lance was smirking down at him, arm still around his shoulders, and Keith was visibly blushing at this point. The people around them were watching. Some of them were smiling and others were looking at Lance. Lance wasn’t looking at anyone besides Keith.

“That just means I owe you two meals now…” Keith muttered mostly to himself, but Lance bumped Keith’s hip with own and shot him a look.

“What are you gonna get?” Lance asked, handing him a menu. He didn’t move from his position of hand on Keith’s hip, with the shorter of the two hoping he never would.

In the end, Keith got a traditional breakfast plate that had eggs, potatoes, bacon and toast. Lance got a breakfast burrito that weighed about the same as a newborn baby. They were sitting on the sand now, watching every wave crash over the sand before them and fighting off seagulls that tried to get their food. Lance was subtly moving them closer to the water, so much so that at some point, the tips of the waves kissed Keith’s ankles and he didn’t realize it.

By the time they finished their food, they were just lounging on the sand, laying on Lance’s blanket from his car. Lance was staring at the ocean, and Keith was staring at Lance.

At the store, on the other side of town, Pidge was ten minutes away from clocking in. She was sitting at the partner table in the back, trying to do some homework so she could just relax when she got back home. She stood, and shut the door to the employees only bathroom when she saw two people walking into the back. It was Nyma and Shay. She rolled her eyes to herself. She didn’t really like either of them particularly, as they were the resident drama starters at the store. Not so much Shay as it was Nyma, but Shay certainly didn’t discourage the other from running her mouth.

Pidge was about to blow off their whole conversation when she heard just what they were talking about.

“So, what’s up with Keith and Lance?” Nyma. Pidge squinted her eyes before whipping out her phone.

“I dunno, they seem like they get along well. That’s about all I can say, right?”

“I’m not so sure. They seem like they’re a lot closer than that. I think they might be dating or having sex or something.” Pidge could only imagine what she was doing, probably standing all contrapposto, with her head cocked back, dripping with confidence.

“Keith works today! I could talk to him if you want me to and ask him about it!”

“It’s honestly not that big of a deal, Shay. Don’t worry about it! I was just a little curious is all.” She giggled after that, and Pidge’s stomach soured.

When she heard the two girls go back onto the floor, she emerged from the bathroom. She grabbed her phone, still expecting a response from Keith about earlier as to what happened with Rolo that morning, but there was no luck. She clocked back in and tied her apron on as she sighed heavily, frustrated.

“He needs to get it together, I can’t pick up all the pieces for him.”

Lance and Keith returned to the apartment. Lance went to leave, but Keith grabbed his shoulder and asked him to hang out at his house for a little. This made his palms sweat in his jacket pockets, heart race, and his head light as a feather. Looking over at Keith brought their eyes together, and Lance wanted to look away so bad but he fought every urge and kept his eyes locked with Keith’s. Keith ducked away first, blushing hard as ever. Keith: confident, wonderful, fiery Keith, and he didn’t want to look Lance in the eye. It made his heart sob to think about.

“What time do you work?” Lance’s voice came out grainier than he expected and it surprised Keith as well as himself.

“Not until…two.” Keith paused, checking his phone for the time. He saw there was a new message as well. Pidge. He pocketed his phone, deciding to check it out later.

They came upon the staircase. Lance waited for Keith to start ascending before following right behind.

“This is stupid. Like, he’s perfect. His hair is beautiful, his shoulders and arms are beautiful, his hips are perfectly curved and round. His—oh estimado Dios en el cielo! His ass, right here, practically in my face! Es maravilloso, hermoso, mortal.”

Lance nearly fell on top of Keith as they reached the top. The other only laughed nervously.

“Do you want to talk about what happened earlier? Or are you still not ready. It’s okay if you aren’t, no pressure. I just want to be there for you if you need it off your chest, y’know?” Keith smiled warmly, the kindest, sweetest smile that Lance had ever been graced with. Am I in love?

Keith unlocked the front door and opened it, grabbing Lance’s hand in his and guiding him inside.

“I don’t mind talking about it. Besides, I think I’m going to need help making a decision.” Lance swallowed all the moisture in his mouth and throat at that. He fumbled around the word in his head, and for some reason it worried him more than it probably should have.

They kicked off their shoes and plopped down on the sofa. Keith looked to Lance and smiled again, like he was the happiest kid in the world. Lance’s heart felt like it was going to explode. He added chronic heart burn to his list of new things that were happening to him (as a result of knowing Keith).

“So, there’s this guy that I knew in high school, right?” He paused, and Lance threw him a look. “Wow, that’s always a great way to start off any conversation.” Keith said, chuckling as he shook his head. Lance was completely bewitched. He compelled himself to respond.

“Oh great, do you like him or something?” He hoped his eyes didn’t give away what he was thinking.

“Why does that matter to you?” Lance flushed harder. Keith smirked. “Anyway, I used to, when I was like seventeen, but now, I don’t really see him as much more than a really great friend. He’s a professional photographer, and he’s taught me a lot about all that stuff. And a little bit about life too I guess.”

“Okay, then what’s the problem with him?”

“Well, now he likes me. But like I said, I don’t feel it. Also he showed up at my house and may or may not have kissed me. Then you called and completely saved my ass. I felt like Aladdin or something, narrowly escaping danger.”

“Nice. You’ve just ruined Aladdin for me.” Lance giggled, gently punching Keith’s shoulder, Keith’s cheeks flared with blush. Keith sighed, shakily, shifting his eyes to glance at Lance’s lips…

“Sorry, didn’t mean to.”

“Wait, did you say he just kissed you? He didn’t even, like, ask or anything?”

“No, he didn’t. But I guess that’s okay, because I haven’t figured out how to tell him yet, but there’s someone else that I really, really like.” Keith leaned closer to Lance then, and Lance stiffened where he sat. Oh shit…do you think…?

“Oh…really? Do I know him?”

“Maybe.” Keith rested his head against Lance’s shoulder (for the second time in twenty-four hours, Lance noted), and sighed again. His heart settled as Keith’s face wasn’t so close to his anymore.

“This has just been a long, stressful week for me so far.”

“It’s only Monday, Keith Kogane. And even then, it’s like what, noon?” Keith snorted.

“I know.”

_  
_

-

“He purposely didn’t answer my question, Hunk! What do you think that means?” Lance paced the (hilariously small) bathroom floor as Hunk showered. He could hear his friend laughing to himself at the predicament.

“It probably means he doesn’t want to tell you, as much as he doesn’t want to tell what’s his face. It’s kinda a private thing. I could see why he wouldn’t want to just spill the beans to some guy he’s barely known for a couple months. Especially if you potentially know who it is.”

“Hunk this is my love life, you’re supposed to be on _my_ side! Also I asked Pidge about this “friend” that bugged him and, mind you he never mentioned this particular detail—the dude is a literal fossil! He’s like, almost in his thirties! He probably has like grandchildren or something! He’s old enough that he could be Keith’s creepy uncle for all I know!”

“Well, I don’t know about that. He already mentioned that he didn’t return the guy’s feelings so there’s no problem there, right? I mean the worst thing that could happen is that they aren’t friends anymore because that kind of thing can get a little awkward. Also, move, I need to get out.” The sound of running water silenced, the steam now hanging in the air.

The pair heard the front door of the apartment open as Shrio walked through the door.

“Finally! Shiro is a romantic guy, right? I’ll ask him! Thanks, Hunk!”

“He’s romantic if you like stale dad jokes…” Hunk’s mutter went unheard as Lance bolted.

“Shiro! What’s up?” Lance hurried over to his friend for a quick embrace. Shrio smiled his ‘tired but happy parent’ smile. It was the most treasured sight of the friend group. Lance’s eyes nearly filled with tears.

“Hey there, Lance. No work or school today?” Lance scoffed, mock offended.

“No, _dad_. Did you think I’d ditch or something?” Shrio rolled his eyes, gently nudging Lance out of his way with his elbow.

“I was just asking.” The older man said, placing a mock sad hand over his heart as he did, lower lip jutting out ever so slightly as he headed for his bedroom.

Once Shiro and Hunk were situated, they offered open ears to Lance.

“So basically I think Keith is in love with me and I’m definitely also in love with him but I’m not sure what to do from here.” Shiro scoffed.

“You’ve had boyfriends _and_ girlfriends before, Lance. I’m pretty sure you already know what to do about it.” Hunk nodded his head in executive accordance.

“I think you need to take Keith out with _us_ one day. We have to see if he’s the right material for our super ultimate best friend since elementary school. Just saying. If I have to deal with another Lance breakup, I don’t know what I’ll do.” Shiro laughed as Lance pouted.

“Although, you shouldn’t ask him again so soon. You might look super desperate if you ask him to hang out three days in a row. Just a thought.” Shiro offered, but Lance couldn’t quite figure out if he was being a sarcastic jackass or not.

“Shiro please! You’re the hottest person I know! Isn’t romance your thing!?”

“Psh! When was the last time I went on a date? Do you remember? Because I don’t!”

“Well, you know! You’re just super-hot? I figured you’d know how to help me!”

Shiro was cackling in his seat. Hunk joined in not much later. Lance, much to his chagrin, was suppressing a smile and immense laughter as well.

“All Shiro is good for is reeling people in with his looks, dude. There’s no way he’d be able to be smooth enough to get them to date him!” They were wiping tears from their eyes.

“Watch it, Hunk!” Shrio mock threatened, grin still spread wide across his face. The scar from his first (and only) motorcycle accident was stretched taut over the bridge of his nose. He pushed his prosthetic hand through his short hair as the moment faded.

“Anyway, in all honesty Lance, we’ll both support whatever it is you decide to do, as always. I think Hunk has a great point when he says we should meet this Keith guy. If he wants you, he’s gonna get the whole package whether he wants it or not.” Shiro’s face beamed with honesty and wholesomeness. Lance wanted to cry at the mere sight of it. Shiro was hands down the most loyal friend any person could ever ask for.

“Hey! We could go visit Keith while he works tonight!” Lance decided. “You guys can meet him that way!”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Won’t he be, I don’t know, more focused on working?” Hunk folded his arms over his chest as he spoke.

“Hush, Hunk! It’ll be fine!” Lance grabbed up his keys. “I’ll drive!” Shrio and Hunk shot each other looks of concern, but shrugged at Lance’s nonchalance.

Meanwhile, at work, Keith was not fine.

Not fine at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cafe cubano con espumita = Not found at Starbucks. This is a traditional Cuban style espresso beverage that is topped with foamed sugar. It has no milk unless you want to add it. The foam is pure sugar to counterbalance the bitter espresso flavor! Amazing.  
> “Es este el chico que te gusta?” = is this the boy that you like?  
> “No me vayas a dichabar, Mamá!” = Don't betray my secret mama!  
> “Esqueleto rumbero! No hable así a tu madre de esa manera!” = Hey skinny! Don't speak to your mother that way!  
> "darle un mate." = give him a French kiss.  
> “¡Chao pescao!” / “¡Y a la vuelta picadillo!” = Very similar to "see ya later alligator /after a while, crocodile!" literally translates to, "ciao fish! / see you soon, minced meat!"  
> "oh estimado Dios en el cielo" = oh dear God in heaven above  
> "Es maravilloso, hermoso, mortal" = it's marvelous, beautiful, deadly
> 
> WOO I HOPE THAT'S EVERYTHING THANKS AGAIN Y'ALL I APPRECIATE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!

**Author's Note:**

> hello thank you for reading this far!! ;-; I really appreciate it. If you could comment maybe I'd be even happier because I wanna talk klance and coffee with everyone!!
> 
> undertow= a tiny espresso beverage where you pull fresh hot shots on top of cold milk (don't let them mix!) so you can just chug it in the back while holding back tears because peak is starting lmao, I think that this is a "secret menu" Starbucks beverage? Like if you go to another coffee shop you couldn't just order an 'undertow' and have them know what you're talking about but I could be wrong I've never tried it.  
> macchiato= 'mark' in Italian (in case you missed it up top!)  
> quad= 4 shots of espresso  
> breve= a fancy word for half and half! (pronounced breh-vay)  
> ristretto= a shot that's pulled with less water so that the caffeine concentration is higher and the flavor a little sweeter! (these are found in flat whites most of the time but can be in any drink! this is my personal favorite type of shot)  
> Americano= I'm not really a huge fan of these but it's espresso shots mixed with water. (it looks very similar to standard brewed coffee but it is generally less bitter and acidic with a smoother flavor)
> 
> thank you! I hope this all makes sense! Happy coffee drinking!


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